***

Lacking the lyrical and musical prowess that New School Rock band Adelitas Way achieved on their first album, Home School Valedictorian was a decidedly garden variety affair that offered plenty to please fans of the band and their genre, but virtually nothing to garner new ones outside those confines. While nothing here other than “Move” strays into offensively bad territory (which is nice considering the same cannot be said for 2016’s Getaway), other than the lead single “Sick” there’s nothing here that achives anything more than mundane. Nothing approaches the levels of even “Invincible” from their previous work (so we don’t even have to talk about “Brother”) and the wider subject matter of the original release is boiled down to two very basic impulses: violence and heartbreak. “Alive” and “Somebody Wishes They Were You” offer more upbeat number, but with their repetitive choruses and cheesy lyricism, they’re hardly showstoppers. I’m not sure if Adelitas Way was attempting to cash in on its relationship with WWE with “Cage the Beast” and “The Collapse,” but it’s hard to believe anybody other than jerks or professional fighters could ever be interested in hearing such nonsense as “Get laid out or I’m gonna keep you down/Stay down or I’m gonna keep you down.” Then again, Home School Valedictorian is by far Adelitas Way’s most successful album with over 120,000 copies sold, so what do I know? Keep piling up the bodies, boys.